Blogs - Katie Christiansen

It’s Spring! For the first time since September, temperatures are in the 60s, students are sprawled on the President’s Lawn soaking up the sun, and TUEQ is back in action in our regular season show schedule. This weekend we headed to Medway, Mass., for our first IHSA show of the season, hosted by Wellesley College at Rising Star Equestrian Center.

Two-point without stirrups can only mean one thing: It’s Tournament of Champions time!

This week TUEQ will head to the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., to give the IHSA the ol’ one-two (or at the very least keep our heels down, execute lead changes where appropriate and find eight jumps stylishly).

While we had a blast at the last Tournament at Centenary College in New Jersey, we’re hungry for some better placings and more confident outings this time around.

Now I can finally say it: TUEQ’s fall semester is OVER! It’s definitely bittersweet. I’m super excited to have the last few weeks of the semester to say goodbye to friends that are going abroad and to work on my final exams, but I will definitely miss the massive quantities of team time I’ve enjoyed for the past few months.

We’ve been invited to the Holiday Tournament of Champions at Centenary College this weekend, and on Friday six of us will pack up my car and take a road trip down south. And by south I mean anywhere it’s 5 degrees warmer than Boston. And by that I mean central New Jersey.

Hosting a horse show, no matter how small or informal, is a massive undertaking. It requires hours of preparation, an inhuman amount of patience, and several very supportive, flexible and understanding co-coordinators. Oh, and a lot of cash.

Good news! Ivan and I are happy to report that we had a fruitful and uneventful New England finals, placing sixth in the open adult equitation, 18-22 and 11th in the Medal Final. Considering that I added a freestyle halt last year and only practiced a handful of times this year, I’m pretty psyched!

A good IHSA team needs a good support system, and TUEQ is lucky to have a fabulous one.

Dani White, the owner of August Farm in Holliston, Mass., kindly lets us use her wonderful array of school horses to practice on almost every day of the week. Even though they have the technical label of “school” horses, each one provides a unique learning experience and tries harder than most other “show” horses I’ve ridden.